


hallmark holiday

by 1989



Category: Camp Camp (Web Series)
Genre: Father's Day, Fluff, Gen, and max calls him dad because i'm a huge fuckin sap, dadvid, david adopted the hellion about a year ago in this (:, it's super soft because there's so much angst involving max....., nikki and neil have no concept of privacy but they're the best, which is all great but i need happiness....
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-03
Updated: 2017-10-01
Packaged: 2018-12-23 13:02:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,697
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11990352
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/1989/pseuds/1989
Summary: Making a Father's Day card isn't the easiest thing when you have to hide who your father actually is from your friends.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> this is a lil thing i wrote while jamming out to 80's music and internally sobbing over max's shitty home life. i know it's september but i just had to make a fathers day thing, man.....
> 
> i love this fictional kid a lot. please enjoy my lame attempts at making him seem happier here

It was a Saturday early into the summer, and every camper at Camp Campbell- hell, as a select few lovingly dubbed it- huddled inside the safety of the mess hall as rain trickled onto the roof above them. The resident trio of hooligans raided the supply closet for something to pass the time with, and returned with a box full of art supplies. The three friends sat at a table making (admittedly very bad) art, while the remaining campers were roped into playing some card game led by Nerris.

"Who are you making that for, Max?" Nikki asked, glancing up from her doodle of a platypus-squirrel mutant to the construction paper that her friend had folded into a card and was carefully writing on in black marker. Despite his concentration, his penmanship was still laughably sloppy, and only became worse as Nikki distracted him and caused him to smudge the paper.

Though his expression remained unfazed, Max immediately wrapped an arm around the card to hide it from her line of sight and curled a bit in on himself. "The fuck do you think?" He managed to retain his disgruntled disposition even though he was slightly frazzled after being knocked from his state of deep concentration. "It's for Father's Day," he mumbled as he resumed his scribbling, ultimately much too invested in this particular project to let anyone- including his best friends- distract him from it.

"Oh!" Nikki responded, her eyes lighting up like a Christmas tree. Max rarely- if ever- spoke about his parents, and the idea that he wanted to hand craft something for his father on a holiday that he himself had previously dismissed as nothing more than a "cheap Hallmark gimmick orchestrated by the capitalists to rake in more cash the beginning of the summer" was a bit surprising.

"You're gonna mail a card to your dad?" Neil peered up from his failed attempt at macaroni art to jump into the conversation. He'd been scrubbing his hands dry with sanitizer for the past three minutes to clean the sticky glue from them, but to virtually no avail.

"How come you never talk about him?" Nikki pushed her palms on the table and leaned her entire body over it to peek at Max's work. "Is he nice?"

"Do you really think this shit hole of a camp has enough money to pay for stamps?" Neil also appeared a bit skeptical about the situation, though he was approaching it from a more logical perspective than Nikki.

"And how come-"

"Look!" Max snapped, his marker plopping onto the ground as he released it to slam his hands over the paper to cover it from both sets of intruding eyes. "All you need to know is that it's a card for my dad, okay?! Stop fucking interrogating me about it." He slid the paper from the table and retrieved the fallen writing utensil before stomping towards the entrance of the mess hall. The rain outside had stalled to a mere drizzle, which meant Max could make a dramatic exit without getting completely drenched. He let the door slam behind him, leaving an equally confused pair of friends in his wake.

"Jeez, what's his problem?" Neil piped up after an extended beat of shocked silence. He rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly, feeling a bit shaken after the sudden noise.

"Touchy subject?" The green haired girl beside him shrugged, blissfully oblivious to the prominent role she'd played in Max's outburst. Neil mirrored Nikki by shrugging and muttering a "guess so," sparing one last wary glance towards the double doors before returning to his pathetic excuse of a project.

"Just gotta let him walk it off."

//

Max woke the next morning just as the sun peeked over the horizon and forced himself from the comfort of his cot. He silently mulled over how much he hated being up before noon as he pulled on his hoodie and shoved a pair of sneakers over his feet, not bothering to change out of his pajama pants. He'd hopefully be back within five minutes, and have enough time to fall back into dreamland for another few hours.

Grabbing the card he made yesterday from where it was strategically hidden inside his pillow case, Max quietly shuffled past a snoring Neil and exited the tent. He grew increasingly more aware of  _just_ how early it was with each step he took towards the counselor cabin, yet the eerie stillness of the camp did nothing to deter him. There was likely no other time he'd be able to do this, as the other campers were always hovering nearby throughout the day and it would be a cold day in hell when Max allowed any of them to discover his current living situation. He had a close call yesterday with Nikki and Neil, who constantly insisted on shoving their nose in his business. Deep down, however, Max knew that he'd eventually have to tell them. He couldn't continue to let his best friends believe he lived at home with a mother and father when, in reality, he'd been adopted by their overly cheery camp counselor nearly a year ago. But that was a confession for another day. His primary focus at the moment was delivering this stupid card to David and booking it before anyone saw.

Once Max reached the cabin shared by both counselors he gave a brief rap to the wooden frame, which was unlike how he usually went about knocking. Though David was likely awake, Max knew Gwen was a deep sleeper and didn't want her to jolt awake to the sound of loud pounding against the door. That wouldn't end well for either of them.

It wasn't like he cared about her sleep schedule, though. Definitely not. What?

Max was thrust from his thoughts as the door was pulled open by David, who stood in matching flannel pajamas and bunny slippers. Because of course he did. "Max?" He forced out through a yawn, rubbing at his eyes with a closed fist and blinking hard to clear the cloudiness from his vision. "What are you doing up at this hour, kiddo?"

Max refused to grace David with a response as he shoved the card at his guardian and angled his body away from him. He kicked at a small lump of dirt on the ground as David smoothed the wrinkles that materialized on the paper when it was forcibly pressed into his hand and curiously inspected the front. It was devoid of words but was instead decorated with a forest and blindingly neon yellow sun sporting a pair of sunglasses, which was surrounded by puffy blue clouds that resembled cotton candy. David smiled at the cute drawing and immediately planned out a space on the fridge to stick it to, even though he was still confused as to it's purpose, and peeled open the card.

David scanned over the heading scribbled in Crayola marker upwards of five times before he sincerely processed what he was reading. The card was originally addressed to Dav, which was messily scrawled out halfway through the name in favor of simply 'Dad'.

_thanks for putting up with my shit. i'm not good at being sentimental but you're okay i guess. okay, that sounds mean. you're the best dad i could have ever gotten stuck with and i'm glad you adopted me. but i swear to god if you start crying i'm going to tear up this card and deny it ever happened_

The letter was signed with a "-Max", which sat beside a smiley face and a "happy fathers day" enclosed in another cloud. The other side of the card was adorned with more doodles and stickers that Max obviously stole from David's scrapbooking inventory and somehow smuggled into the camp.

Despite the empty threat he'd been given, tears instantly began to prickle David's eyes. He  _himself_ hadn't realized that it was Father's Day, and the fact that Max not only remembered but went out of his way to make him something was enough on its own to move him to tears. But the card's contents were what truly did him over; Max thought he was the  _best dad ever?_   Cancel this holiday until the end of his life. There was no point in celebrating it anymore, because he'd certainly never receive a present that topped this.

Max was still dirtying his sneakers by kicking at the ground below when David looked back towards him. "Max?" He tried, doing nothing to hide the watery grin spreading across his face. David tried to keep his voice steady since the last thing he wanted was for the card to be torn to pieces, but there was no way on Earth he could prevent it from wavering during this moment. Max's head popped up towards his guardian, and the moment he noticed the glistening in his eyes he groaned. "I told you not to cry," he started to complain, but was cut off as David knelt down and scooped him into a giant hug.

The embrace caught Max off guard, and he squirmed in David's arms as he quickly glanced around the premises for any new signs of life. When he found none, however, he allowed himself to relax into the hug, resting his head on his guardian's shoulder and loosely connecting his hands around his back.

David wished they were back home so he could make Max a batch of chocolate pancakes and spend the day with him at the arcade to show his utmost appreciation towards the child, but settled on squeezing him closer and ruffling his unbrushed hair for now. "Thank you," he said, his smile present even in his words. "I love you so much, bud."

Max had already begun to reap the consequences of waking up so early, and could barely manage to keep his eyes open as he melted into the warmth and familiarity of David's hug. "I love you too, Dad," he mumbled softly, tiredness lacing his voice. Max drifted off a moment later feeling safer than he ever had at this shitty camp, and didn't stir a bit as David carried him back to his tent and tucked him in beside his bear.

David returned to his cabin afterwards and called his father to tell him how much he loved him, and to read him the card his adopted grandson wrote... maybe minus the profanity.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Max accidentally calls David his Dad in front of Neil and Nikki, which leads to some... problems.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> lol i found this in my writing app and i was like 'holy crap i never posted this' so. here ya go. i love this lil au so much

In Max's defense, he didn't _mean_  to call him that.

It was a simple slip of the tongue that snowballed into something larger than it ever should've been. Truthfully, Max would rather slip face first off a swing at maximum height and bless the mulch that caught him than call David _that_  in front of his friends.

He blamed it on exhaustion. Max barely got any rest the previous night on account of Neil's inability to sleep without sounding like a freight train, and he was yanked out of bed at an ungodly hour without so much as a cup of coffee to assist in the awful transition from peaceful unconsciousness to living.

Once in the Mess Hall Neil and Nikki hurried over to grab breakfast while Max slumped over at their regular table, folding his arms together and resting his head beneath them, reminiscent of the punishments he usually received at school for "lack of self control", "inappropriate language" or "being a general disruption to the classroom." After they returned and plopped down their trays on either side of Max, David strolled by and wordlessly slid him a bowl of cereal.

Max lifted his head lethargically and blinked down at the bowl until the blurry mix of green and white registered in his mind as milk and Lucky Charms. "Thanks, Dad," he yawned, shoving a spoonful of the sugary meal directly into his mouth. David grinned in response and mussed the three campers hair- as if it hadn't been messy enough from bed- before heading back over to he and Gwen's shared table.

Max smirked down at his bowl as he twirled around the spoon, amused at the knowledge that David had made it specifically for him with the cereal Max stuffed into David's suitcase before they left for camp earlier in the month. It made him feel worlds above the slew of other brainless campers and, perhaps more importantly, he felt loved.

Like all good things, however, this oddly positive emotion came to a screeching halt as Max looked up and noticed the pairs of eyes staring back at him with so much intensity he almost fell backwards off the bench. "What?" He demanded, utterly confused as to why his friends were looking at him in such a way.

"You called David 'Dad'!" Nikki exclaimed as she broke into a grin, her eyes gleaming with nearly tangible excitement.

"What?! No I di- oh my _fuck_."

Nikki was bouncing up and down in her seat now, impossibly elated for how early in the day it was. "Wait!" She gasped. "So _that's_  who you were making that father's day card for!"

" _No!_ " Max snapped, instantly on the defense. He couldn't let anyone know he secretly hated David a little less than he cared to let on- it would _destroy_  his reputation as the rebellious one. Not to mention the emotional turmoil that would inevitably come from Nikki and Neil knowing that David adopted him. All in all, it was too much to handle.

Nikki didn't seem to process Max's denial of her question, as she continued to pounce him with more. "Do you _always_  call him that, or do you alternate between David and Dad? Does he call you son? Is it because he and Gwen were your parents at that thing last year?"

Max was negative two seconds away from either pressing his hands against Nikki's mouth to shut her up or going the preferable route of choking her out so she'd quite literally never speak of it again. Or anything, for that matter. Neil, who had remained silent during the entire ordeal, seemed to pick up on this and quickly cut through Nikki's rambling. "Okay, okay, Nikki, chill out," he said as he placed a hand on Max's shoulder, though the hyper girl kept spewing out a plethora of questions even after Max turned to face Neil.

"Listen Max," Neil began, dropping his hand from his friend to wring them both together nervously. "I know what it's like to hate your dad, okay? But is your home life really so shitty that you're internally replacing _David_  as your father figure? That can't be healthy!" Neil waved his hands erratically in the open air as he grew visibly more worried. "Seriously, do you need us to call someone for you? A therapist? Child social services?"

Max blinked back at him, too dumbstruck to reply. The scarily accurate accusation of abuse coupled with Nikki's relentless rambling was nearly enough to send the ten year old into complete overdrive. Max took in a shaky breath to momentarily calm his nerves before he could explode and rubbed at his temple. "Okay. I'm going to leave now before I can kill both of you, or worse."

His eerily calm response seemed to shock both of his friends enough to shut them up as they watched in shared silence while he slid off the bench and padded over to the exit, slipping out unnoticed by the rest of the camp.

Once he escaped, Max pulled his hood over his messy curls, tilted his head upwards and let out the loudest, most ear curdling scream his tiny lungs could manage. He kicked up clumps of dirt and angrily tugged at his hood while doing so, throwing a fit designed for a four year old. If anyone heard they didn't bother to come outside and check on the possible murder, which Max took as his cue to stomp away to the counselors cabin. No one would notice, anyways.

 _'Screw Nikki and Neil,'_  he thought as he flung open the door to the cabin and shuffled inside.  _'Screw this entire camp. I'm staying inside and watching horror movies all day.'_

In truth, Max only managed to get three-fourths through an episode of Doc McStuffins before the door was opened, causing him to frantically grab the remote and press a random channel number. It landed on a Spanish soap opera, which was...weird to be caught watching, but a thousand times better than Doc Mc-Fucking-Stuffins.

"Max! There you are." David breathed a sigh of relief as he entered the cabin, finding Max safe and sound on the couch. He hadn't expected Max to run away from camp entirely, but that didn't stop him from feeling anxious when Nikki and Neil admitted that he'd scampered off during breakfast.

Max didn't acknowledge David's presence as the man sat down beside him and continued to stare at the television with a bored look. "What'cha watching?" David tried to decipher the dialogue from his limited knowledge of Spanish. He didn't know why Max was watching it, since he didn't know the language either. To his knowledge, at least. Anything was possible with this kid.

Max simply shrugged in response, curling further into himself. David frowned back at him. Max had seemed perfectly fine this morning- albeit a bit tired, but that was to be expected. Why the sudden drastic change in mood?

"What's wrong, bud?" The counselor asked, his tone laced with concern.

"Does it matter?"

David's frown deepened considerably at this. He was thankful Max didn't try denying that something was up, but it was painful to think he doubted that David legitimately cared about his problems.

"Of course it does! You're my top priority, kiddo," David promised, pulling his legs atop the couch and sitting criss cross applesauce. Max spared a glance in his direction but still refused to say much, so David reached across him and grabbed the stuffed animal resting on the opposite end of the couch. It wasn't Max's favourite, but rather a Walmart knock-off that David picked up a while ago. "C'mon, tell Confess-a-Bear!" He waved the bear back and forth in Max's face.

Max shoved the stuffed animal away, but couldn't help the laughter bubbling in his chest. "Confess-a-Bear," he began, holding back a snort. "My dad's an idiot."

David pouted comically at the fake confession, though he was endlessly relieved to see Max smiling again. "Is that all?"

Max's attention fell to the floor. He scrutinized a crack in the linoleum as if it held the answer to David's question; David glanced down on the off chance it did. "Neil and Nikki heard me call you Dad earlier," he finally admitted, his voice quiet.

Oh!

Oh.

... _Oh._

"Oh, gosh," David winced.

"More like 'oh shit, I'm gonna drown myself,'" Max groaned, dragging a hand down the length of his face. David didn't bother to correct his language or mention that doing so spread germs. "They kept hounding me with questions like last week when they saw I was making a fathers day card. Can't they just mind their own business? I don't intrude on _their_  home lives- even though I really should, because the thing going on between their parents is funny as hell."

David hesitated for a moment before speaking in order to form his response perfectly. He knew Max detested the idea of telling anyone about his...  _new living arrangements,_ but it had been almost a year of keeping everyone in the dark. His friends would know eventually, and it'd be much better for Max to tell them on his own terms than have them find out for themselves. "Max, maybe... maybe it's time you let them know," David said softly, holding the bear out to him.

Instead of erupting into a fit of repulsion at the suggestion, Max let out a heavy sigh and snatched the animal out of David's hands. "I know," he grumbled as he squeezed its stomach. He hated how quickly David always got to the root of the issue. "I just don't know how to."

David furrowed his eyebrows in contemplation, mulling over multiple options he'd admittedly already thought over. He considered offering to tell the kids himself, but knew it was Max's announcement to make. They were his friends, after all. "You could ease it into the conversation. Casually ask them about where their parents work, and when they ask about yours say... a summer camp?"

"How subtle," Max scoffed. "Why don't I just bake a cake and write 'David adopted me' on it in frosting?"

"Because number one, you're not allowed near an oven again until you turn eighteen," David reminded him, shivering at the memory of their apartment nearly burning down a few months prior. "And secondly, you don't _have_  to do it that way. Whatever you feel comfortable with doing works best."

Max looked into the beady eyes of the bear in his hands. It wasn't a particularly _bad_  idea, and he certainly couldn't come up with something better on his own. "Fine, I'll do it later," he relented, pushing the issue into the deep recesses of his mind as he turned back towards the TV. It was officially a problem for Future Max to handle.

"That's the spirit!" David patted him on the back before pushing on his own knees to stand. "Let's starting heading outside to meet with the others. Gwen's already started everyone on an activity."

"You're gonna make me participate today after being publicly humiliated? I'm going through emotional turmoil!" Max shouted, gesturing at himself even though he didn't look saddened in the slightest. David picked up on the cheap ploy to get out of activities from a mile away, but he figured he could let Max get away with it just this once. He probably _should_  save his energy for what he was revealing to his friends later.

"What's my number in case something goes wrong?"

"David, you programmed yourself on _speed dial_  on my phone. I couldn't lose your number if I tried."

"Okay, okay, just checking. Be safe and please, for the love of all that is holy, try not to get into any trouble."

"Can't make any promises."

"Max!"

"Kidding!" Max jumped from the couch and began shooing David out of the cabin so he could have some peace and quiet for once in his goddamn life. "Now get out!"

"I'll see you later, love you!"

"Yeah, yeah, the feeling's mutual or whatever," Max said as he slammed the door in David's face. The moment he was gone, Max fell onto the sofa and immediately flipped back over to Disney Channel.

//

That evening, Max silently trudged between his friends as they walked to he and Neil's tent. He'd _tried_  to sit with David and Gwen at dinner, but the latter picked him up by the hood and deposited him directly onto his friends table. This led to an awkward meal with a main course of silence and a side serving of tension. Max wondered if this was how Jesus felt at the last supper, knowing that this was the last time he'd eat before being dragged away to his death.

Neil pealed back the tent's covering and the trio all piled into the ridiculously close quarters. Max plopped onto the floor, intentionally placing himself as far away from them as possible. Anxiety and hesitation filled his gut like a swarm of angry butterflies, but he knew he had to tell them now before this palpable awkwardness somehow increased.

"Where do your parents work?" Max blurted out, instantly cursing himself at how unsure he sounded.

Both kids appeared taken aback, but it didn't take longer than a nanosecond for a large grin to spread across Nikki's face. "My dad works at an auto repair shop! My mom does boring stuff behind a desk during the day, but one time I overheard my dad say that she worked a corner or something at night? I don't know exactly what he meant, but it sounds cool!"

Neil shot Nikki a sympathetic look, choosing not to inform her as to what exactly that meant. "Uh, well, you know my dad teaches philosophy. My mom's a real estate agent, though." Neil narrowed his eyes at Max, very obviously wondering why he would break his day long silence with such an odd question. "Why?"

"No reason," Max answered, trying and failing to sound as aloof as he could.

"Where do your parents work?" Nikki asked, seemingly oblivious to the tension between her two friends.

 _Whew,_  here goes nothing. Or everything. How much was at stake here? Would Nikki and Neil laugh at him for what he was about to say? Hate him? Max couldn't conjure up a viable reason as to why they would, but anything could happen. The ten year old inhaled sharply and forced the words out before he could back down.

"At a summer camp."

"Woah, seriously?! Which one?"

Max's eye involuntarily twitched. Okay, maybe he'd have to go with the cake.

"Nikki, are you- _here,_ " he spluttered, waving his arms to gesture around the tent.

Nikki tilted her head in confusion. Neil seemed to be catching on, if his shocked expression was anything to go by. "What are you... saying, exactly?" He asked slowly, searching Max's eyes for any trace of sarcasm.

Max averted his gaze and quickly stood up. Screw trying, he'd just sleep in the counselors cabin and ignore his friends for the remainder of the summer. He didn't think this would be easy, but he never thought he'd have to _spell it out_  for them. "This was a stupid idea," he muttered as he turned.

"Max, wait!" Neil exclaimed, grabbing said boy by the arm before he could leave. "What do you mean 'here'?"

Max spun around and snatched his arm out of Neil's grasp. "I mean he works _here_  at this stupid camp because it's fucking David! He  _adopted me_  because my parents are shitty, okay?! Is that what you wanted to hear?" he yelled, throwing all caution to the wind. Max breathed heavily from his sudden outburst, only registering the shocked looks splayed across both of his friends faces after a good ten seconds. "Now you can laugh at me, or whatever the fuck you feel like doing."

The silence stretched between them for a few agonizing moments that felt closer to hours and, to Max's surprise, it wasn't broken by laughter, but rather a delighted mix between a scream and a squeal.

"You're _living_  with David?!" Nikki practically screeched as she rushed up to the two boys, excitedly grabbing at either of her ponytails. "Oh hoo hoo, that's rich! Does that mean we can use him to do our bidding?!"

Neil put a hand on Nikki's shoulder to calm down the girl who was shaking with excitement. "Max, why would we laugh at you?"

Max was thoroughly taken aback by his friends responses; he'd honestly expected them to make fun of him for getting stuck with the one person he "hated" most on the planet, or to pry further into the specifics of exactly _why_  he was adopted. "I don't know, it was a possibility," he replied quickly, his voice giving away just how surprised he was.

"I mean, it's... a _fuckton_  to take in," Neil admitted. "But this is great! Now you can screw with David all year long!"

"We could sleep over at your place and draw all over his face! Or sacrifice him to the animals outside!"

"Or steal his wallet!" Neil butted in.

"Holy shit, you're right." Max's eyes widened as his friends evil suggestions flooded his mind. "This is gonna be _awesome!_ "

"C'mon, we have to make a Venn Diagram of the most effective methods of torture!" Nikki grabbed them each by the arm a bit too roughly and drug them both to Neil's desk.

Max let himself get lost in laughing with his best friends, and by the end of the night he'd completely forgotten why he'd kept this a secret for so long. And if Max happened to call David 'Dad' the next day, it barely phased either of them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i think you can pinpoint the exact moment i got tired pfhaha 
> 
> comments make me cry tears of joy


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